It was a long time coming but worth the wait as Witham beat Loughton convincingly to win the Eastern Counties Division Four South title.
John Clark's men knew a win would mean the team winning the divisional title outright.
Witham opened the scoring with just five minutes on the clock. A hopeful kick-through by Loughton had already been gathered into the waiting arms of full-back Jon Ferris, who dodged the follow-up tackle and kicked it clear.
Almost immediately, Loughton gave away a penalty, which was ably converted by fly-half Phil Corfield.
Winger Paul Cole sprinted past a couple of tackles to score his 23rd try of the season and Corfield converted.
Shortly afterwards centre Mike Estall crossed the line to score a try, converted by fly-half Paul Ralph.
But Witham had to come from behind to win.
Winger Aaron Coombs got the ball on the overlap and he cruised over the line in the corner.
A penalty was converted by Corfield and then the same player made an interception on the half-way line and went up the pitch to score.
Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.
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